Pakistan Arrests 6 Al Qaeda Suspects

[TexasStooge]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Wednesday it had arrested six members of a high-profile al Qaeda cell, including a Yemeni believed to have been involved in the October 2000 attack on the U.S. warship Cole in Yemen.

The government said the group had been planning a major terrorist attack in Pakistan.

Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told Reuters the six also included a nephew of al Qaeda number three, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was arrested in Pakistan in March.

A Pakistani government statement identified the Cole suspect as Waleed Muhammad Bin Attash alias Khalid Al-Attash, a Yemeni national. It said the arrests took place on Tuesday during a raid in which 330 pounds of high explosives also were seized.

It said a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives including detonators, transmitters and timer switches, intended to be used for terrorist attacks, was also recovered.

"As the drive against terrorism continues unabated, the law enforcement agencies yesterday busted a high profile terrorist gang related to al Qaeda in Karachi averting a major terrorist attack," the statement said.

Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani told Reuters that apart from Al Attash, five Pakistanis were also arrested in Karachi. "He (Al-Attash) is wanted in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole."

Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, chief of the Interior Ministry's Crisis Management Cell, said the arrests were made in two simultaneous raids.

"We don't like to go into details at this moment because we are looking out for more people," he said. "It is a big achievement, a major catastrophe has been averted."

Pakistan has been a key ally of the United States in its war against terror.

Officials say more than 400 al Qaeda suspects and members of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime have been arrested in Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The biggest catch was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who Pakistani officials say was arrested in a raid in a house in Rawalpindi in March. Mohammed, suspected of masterminding the September 11 attacks, was handed over to the Americans soon after his arrest.

A suicide bomber in a small boat attacked the Cole in Aden port, killing 17 U.S. sailors.

Washington blamed the attack on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, which has had many supporters in Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral home.

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